Finding the right career fit is a challenge most students face and when asked what they want to do professionally when they graduate, the choices can be overwhelming. As a way to ease the transition for students making strides to their prospective career pathway, CEV Multimedia announces the addition of the Career Cluster Interest Inventory (CCII) tool to its comprehensive iCEV platform.

The CCII provides assistance to students from eighth grade to higher education during the critical steps of education and career planning. A student completes the interest inventory within a 15- to 20-minute time period and receives information on a career cluster that best fits the student’s interests and skills. Career clusters, 16 groupings of related occupations developed by the U.S. Department of Education, provide essential knowledge and skills to guide in developing programs of study to bridge secondary and postsecondary curriculum. The clusters also assist in creating individual student plans of study for a complete range of career options.

"This is an important addition to the CTE curriculum offered through iCEV that will assist students and educators alike in studying and exploring various career paths by identifying an interest pattern based on responses of career and activity related questions," said Dusty Moore, iCEV President. "Additionally, schools value survey tools to gain an understanding of the courses they need to offer to meet their students' needs and career aspirations."

Upon completing the inventory and being matched with a cluster, students are guided to post-secondary information and specific occupations. CCII complements the current iCEV career curriculum nicely as it allows a student to complete the interest inventory, identify their top cluster choices, then dive into the curriculum to watch videos, listen to industry experts via career interviews and complete projects to provide a better understanding of the clusters. After completing the study, students take a post-evaluation survey to see how their work impacted their original decisions.

"The Career Cluster Interest Inventory enriches what we can offer to iCEV users and better connects them to the best education path leading towards their career choice," Moore said. "Students are able to look for general information on their career interests, as well as seek specific career titles, the credentials needed and college majors."​Developed by CEV Multimedia, iCEV offers practical, interactive learning with professional demonstrations to prepare students for postsecondary education and high-skill, high-demand careers. Educators can quickly monitor, track and engage students directly through the platform’s interactive lessons. Through iCEV, students can also enhance their career training with industry-backed certifications.

Iowa State University recently unveiled its new metal 3D printer, a ProX 300 from 3D Systems, to the world. Since then, many people are learning about the advantages of adopting metal 3D printing as part of the design and manufacturing process.

Iowa State has opened its doors and invited people to learn with them as they navigate this new technology. “We’re doing a lot of this research that no one can do at this point because the technology’s not out there yet,” said Dakota Morgan, a graduate student researcher.

6 Ways ISU’s Metal 3D Printer is Transforming Manufacturing

Metal 3D Printing helps companies build prototypes more quickly and cheaply. Researcher Chris Hill told KCCI, “This particular technology blows that barrier and destroys it, so now, I can make features, such as this lattice structure, which has internal chambers that I simply cannot machine. If I were to mold this part, I’d have to get a tool to mold it. It might be six to eight weeks to get it tooled. I can do this in hours.”

Patented powder layering system guarantees outstanding quality – According to an article in the Des Moines Register, “metal 3-D printers can create intensely intricate parts, such as molds with swirling cooling channels or parts erected in honeycomb patterns. Parts can be hollow, or include labyrinthine chambers because no drilling is needed.”

Metal 3D printing reduces the cost of molding process – instead of ordering from overseas, companies can manufacture molds locally, saving both time and money.

Excellent accuracy and repeatability – “Once a design is created, it can be stored indefinitely, and items can be printed, essentially, on demand, without the need to send off for molds or machining.”

Fully dense parts with superior mechanical properties – parts created can hold up in production environments against parts that were previously machined, researchers say. The patented powder layering system guarantees outstanding quality.

Allows manufacturers to take part in the “testing” process by working with CIRAS. "Let us make the mistakes, and we'll tell you about our mistakes," Hill said.

Moss was integral in helping Iowa State University choose the appropriate metal 3D printer for their needs. Moss’ partnership with 3D Systems allowed ISU to research, see similar machines and parts created by similar machines prior to investing in this technology.

Every survey tells a story. In December 2015, Moss sent a survey to elementary educators and administrators to gain a better understanding of the state of elementary education, and where they thought STEM fit into the equation.

While we anticipated some of the findings (66% of survey respondents indicated STEM was a priority for their district), other findings were not as obvious to us when we sent the survey.

A sample of the results:

66% of respondents indicated STEM is a focus at the elementary level

22% of respondents believed it was difficult to find age-appropriate STEM curriculum for elementary students

44% of respondents thought of their districts as "technology-forward", and looked for technology-integrated curriculum tools for their elementary students

50% of respondents believed their students should learn engineering concepts by 2nd and 3rd grade

Read More: We examine the need for STEM education for the youngest students, and provide practical, hands-on solutions. Download a FREE copy of our eBook, A Simple Introduction to Elementary STEM to learn more.